JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Retention strategies are essential to ensuring a resilient and efficient healthcare workforce, particularly among specialists who deliver advanced medical care. In Malaysia, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has implemented various workforce retention strategies (WRS) to enhance job satisfaction and reduce turnover among specialists. However, national-level evidence on specialists’ awareness, participation, and perceived effectiveness of these strategies remains limited. Existing evaluations are often fragmented, program-specific, and lack methodological consistency. A robust and standardised approach is therefore needed to generate system-wide insights. This study addresses this gap by introducing Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap), a secure and scalable platform that enables consistent deployment of large-scale surveys. Its use facilitates structured evaluation of WRS across diverse and geographically dispersed MOH settings.

Objective:

This protocol outlines a framework for evaluating MOH specialists’ perceptions of WRS and examining their associations with job satisfaction and turnover intention using REDCap as the data collection platform.

Methods:

A national cross-sectional mixed-methods study will be conducted among 1,325 MOH specialists, selected through systematic random sampling from the Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS 2.0) registry. A self-administered online questionnaire will be developed and managed via REDCap, comprising items adapted from Belbin et al. (2012) to assess awareness, participation, and perceived effectiveness of WRS, the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS), and the Turnover Intention Scale (TIS-6), along with open-ended questions for qualitative insights. A pilot phase will assess instrument reliability and REDCap usability. Quantitative data will be analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative responses will undergo thematic analysis. The study will adhere to CHERRIES and STROBE guidelines to ensure methodological transparency and rigour.

Results:

This protocol will enable the generation of national-level evidence on MOH specialists’ perceptions of 12 MOH-implemented WRS and their associations with job satisfaction and turnover intention.

Conclusions:

This protocol will provide a systematic approach for evaluating WRS among MOH specialists in Malaysia. By leveraging REDCap’s digital capabilities, it will establish a scalable and secure framework for large-scale workforce surveys. Findings are expected to inform data-driven improvements in WRS implementation and may serve as a model for future workforce research in similar health systems. Clinical Trial: Malaysian National Medical Research Register (NMRR) ID-23-03199-3vq (IIR)